A Journal of the Arts

Category: Poetry

Continuous Installation Your body is a metal instrument ringing with an evil music. Your body, now metal, is being played; a music rings out from it. It echoes everywhere. You hear it nonstop. You are not the composer. But the song is named for you. It has your name. It is you. It is all you hear. It is all you can … Continue reading Poetry by Karen Weiser

SEARCHING FOR A FLAG Gay Mart is out of trans flags on back order since pride parade I ask the owner can you order more? his white hair replies call me in a month if you haven’t changed your mind by then THE PLURAL, THE BLURRING After Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B” I am twenty … Continue reading Three Poems by H. Melt

subtext of women ornamentally mature a butter fly bursts in the eye’s image floats through as though there was a choice what signified the leather purse concealing /ed your deep intentions I record myself numbers whirl around pieces of cheese loaded with the greatest minds playing vid e o games I thought I was erased falling into remainders dumping one of my selves with hearts abundant it marches backwards synthetic … Continue reading Two Poems by Mary Kasimor

Seasonal Affect If I walk on the sunny side Now that I know I’m doing it Then I pump my arms And try to laugh off the cold edge of imitation I don’t regret the season of not going Slumping on the subway Sexy moves like that It didn’t mean that much To sit … Continue reading Two Poems by Rita Stein

from He Won’t Buy Me Bloomie’s * Otherworldly whimsy. Blushing toward a feeling of death. Clothes that look severely expensive. Luxury brands that aren’t really a luxury at all. If you buy the perfume today, you essentially get a goody bag with it. Buying clothes you don’t like. Running up the stairs to a job you hate. On … Continue reading Two Poems by Marisa Crawford

TRIGGER WARNING when i was 3, i could sing the batman theme. the family was impressed. uncle would request batman tapes from that guy mom knew across the way from grandfather’s place. i was told i had ‘speech issues.’ i would often misuse ‘a’s. warm became worm. harm became home. i’ve mostly figured words out, except with … Continue reading Four Poems by Jos Charles

An Erased Rauschenberg compositions exist, not unchanged valuable, well, real trash can’t find something as-if put I before the long city realize cuff-demarcations a little nothing, invitingly composed of age, handkerchief, and officious hopes one reality suggests climbing imagery but we is goat business like the five ego entities between the … Continue reading Poetry by Tim Keane

It Is, Indeed, Reminiscent of the Real Thing Higher in whole armor I come. And soon he’ll get his updo and soon my metallsucher will have his magnets. A benefice a bob a brig of ingrown pruned roses, the place a tiny statue with its tiny mewing mouths in Christana in a hangover in a state of skogar loneliness. I’ve consumed … Continue reading Two Poems by Jessica Comola

Never hear, never see About two weeks ago after a nearly sleepless night I drove an hour from working at a public school in the hills to an appointment in the city with a doctor specializing in treating periodontal problems. I stopped for a haircut with a barber in the city whose shop I picked out of the yellow pages, because I’d … Continue reading Poetry by Steve Benson

I wish I had a complete record On the corner of Wayne once a man and Wyneva once Louden was a lot once a building. A grassy lot in place of a brick building with brick porches on a brick road for firm footing. The building was named for a street named for no one. A name given without regard to the old world. The … Continue reading Poetry by Susan Landers

Robin, Spring The robin, claws hidden in tall grass, hops forward and sings a solitary note, hops once more, stopping to sing two notes, which loop through the air, then tilts its head to eye the ground, flies off to a nearby tree. Thanksgiving Morning Red flowers on their stems in a glass vase of fresh water on a wooden table where a petal has … Continue reading Two Poems by Burt Kimmelman

Neighbor Dear neighbor, I want to say this correctly, you are a fine neighbor, listen to me say, fine neighbor, we are even pleasant with each other. Oh neighbor, fine neighbor, say it different, good neighbor, I presume. Sorry neighbor, I’ve dedicated myself to the above. Sorry neighbor, we are finally above ground. It is nice, this atmosphere. Sorry neighbor, I see you everywhere, … Continue reading Three Poems by Christine Kanownik

“I am a Roving Gambler, How do you do?”1 And the blue guy is gonna pop out from behind a car Cause Mwani says ‘you’re the chosen one’ This morning turning on Grand from Calamus Avenue Three butterflies danced by the metal poles on the bridge. The ones I used to walk along gripping the chain link Till my ankles buckled. Scared that the … Continue reading Two Poems by Deirdre Flood

Dinner with the ghost of Lorenzo Thomas He was wearing a dapper suit and midnight blue brocaded tie–no stripes on him. There was a sparkle in his brown eyes/his ghost was most corporeal You’re still curious about the world, I asked. “Oh yes”, said he spying an Obama 2012 poster. “Brotherman needs to keep smoking!”, he opined The hole in … Continue reading Two Poems by Patricia Spears Jones

Cherimoya The tongue conformed itself around this large glossy darkness, a groove cut from its own kernel, whose tartness cut the overwhelming sweetness of the tongue congealing around the seed. The very notion of sweetness, what is sweetness, how does the flesh cloy to its core, the buttery white flesh of the … Continue reading Two Poems by Elizabeth Robinson

Clapping Hands (Portrait of Beth Weisser) a thought in bow a, passing, into hours a taking into hand beprettying a thought in bow in promise and in postponement in agency, in so long being in agency, contrary purposes. a taking into hand a, passing, into hours beprettying a thought in bow a taking into hand a passing, into hours being, a, beprettying a … Continue reading Poetry by Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino